This is a blog dedicated to our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy, Riley (registered name, Coosa Creek's Sir Riley, Lord of Essex) who was diagnosed with Syringomyelia at just 17 months of age. This will be the story of his triumph over this potentially debilitating and painful disease.

Intro

This is a blog dedicated to our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy, Riley. He was just 17 months old when he was diagnosed with Syringomyelia. We are DETERMINED to over come this, make his life as rich, full and amazing as it was going to be before we knew of this diagnosis. We hope that other doggie mommies and doggie daddies out there who also have a baby with SM will be able to use this as a source of information and inspiration in their own personal journey through and to the other side of having a family member with SM.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

One Year Out

Today is one year since Riley's MRI and the on-the-spot diagnosis of Syringomyelia. Riley is coming up on his 1 year anniversary of being on Omeperazole 10 mg nightly at dinner time. We are so grateful that he's been PAIN-FREE since the day we started this higher dose. We'll probably keep him on the Omeperazole for the rest of his life unless there's a compelling reason to take him off it at some point.

The interesting bit of the story which didn't make it into the blog last year was that, a year ago today when we received the diagnosis, Ethan ran out of the MRI facility to get a mobile phone signal (damned AT&T) and called Riley's breeder in Florida. Syringomyelia breeding protocols at that time dictated that Riley's parents not be bred again, for fear of transmitting the gene forward. Ethan spoke with our breeder (Juli) and told her the diagnosis but it was too late- Riley's Mom, Isabel, had been bred just the day before. When we found out that Isabel was indeed pregnant (with a different sire) we struggled with the idea of getting another dog. We felt, though, that these "tainted" dogs needed homes as they had "bad genetic potential" at this point. After much discussion we decided to take a puppy from that litter.

The day after my last posting on this blog (before today's) Riley's mom gave birth on April 7, 2010 to 5 healthy puppies. Happily- they all found forever homes. On June 10th, we brough his brother Charlie (ACK reg. "Coosa Creek's Whispers of Chandler") home with us. Charlie has been great so far and at 10 months old, no reasons to believe he has SM, though only time will tell.

Juli was so supportive through the whole process with Riley. She's really been making strides to screen all of her dogs and to help wage the battle against SM in the CKCS community.

So this is where we are now. Today. SM, first year out. We have no idea what this might do other than help someone out there who, someday, finds out that their beautiful baby has this horrible disease. And we hope that checking in periodically, regardless of what the futures holds for Riley, in some way helps others affected by this scourge of a disease.

2 comments:

Hi – Will you please post a link to your Blog at The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Community at vorts.com? Our members will appreciate it. Members include: CKSC Owners, Breeders, Rescues and Lovers.It's easy to do, just cut and paste the link and it automatically links back to your website...You can also add Photos, Videos, Rescues and Classifieds if you like.Email me if you need any help or would like me to do it for you.The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Community: http://www.vorts.com/cavalier_king_charles_spaniels/Thanks,James Kaufman, Editor